The Deity of Christ

This post has been sitting in draft for a fairly long time. My apologies for the delay.

In an abortive thread on Theologica this past week, a question was asked about the necessity of the Trinity. This is a sharp dividing line between Christians and those who claim to be Christian—Jehovah's Witnesses deny the deity of Christ, while the Mormons deny the unity of the Godhead, for example.

Iraneaus' quote naturally has some bearing on the Trinity, as he assumes the deity of Christ when he says, "... God, who cannot be grasped, comprehended or seen, allows himself to be seen, comprehended and grasped by men, that he may give life to those who see and receive him."

It struck me during the thread that if Jesus Christ is not, in fact, God a very God, then I cannot know God, who is hidden from mankind by his holiness. The deity of Christ is what makes it possible to know God. (We may insert here that Christ, being confined by his human form, is no longer here; but it is his Spirit dwelling in us who reveals God to us. This is yet another argument for the Trinity and the personhood, as it were, of the Holy Spirit.)

It seems that we might also draw a similar conclusion about our own humanity. I cannot know myself unless Jesus Christ is also fully human, a very man. In coming in the flesh, becoming "man fully alive," he gives us the hope of our own perfection, one we anticipate along with all of creation. When I turn inward and examine myself apart from Christ, I see what is fallen and ugly—a flesh whose hallmarks are sin and depravity. But when we look to Christ's person and work, suddenly our own self-perspective can legitimately change. I cannot become human on my own, but when I am finally conformed to the image of Christ, this body of death will at last be cast off, and I will be free.